After over a decade of living with chronic illness, seeking medical treatment, doing a lot of research, and trying various alternative treatments, the greatest improvements to my health have come from self-care actions!

It's a shame I had to learn all these on my own and not receive any of the information from my doctors, or at any time in school while growing up. They seem like common sense now, but I was caught up in our American 24/7 culture of constant “work / do / go / acquire / consume” which leaves little time for care of one’s own health.

Healthy Habits One at a TimeHere I share with you my top 10 self-care actions hoping to save you the time and effort it took me to learn how to take of my own health. I'll expand on each of these topics in upcoming posts:

Common Sense Ideas, Uncommon Practice A lot of these are common sense healthy living ideas, but in our modern society, most of us are on the go, rushing around, eating fast-food, not getting enough exercise or fresh air, juggling too many activities, living beyond our means, and working to death to pay for it all. It’s exhausting. No wonder so many of us are sick.It takes time and effort to make healthy changes, but it is worth it in the long run.

Make Changes GraduallyStart by making one simple change this week. Keep at it for a month, and see if you can add another simple change next month. Add more challenging changes as time goes on.

But. . .don’t try to go on a dairy-free gluten-free diet right before the holiday season! Wait until January.

Over time you will get used to each new action and it will become a natural part of your routine. Ask your family to do the changes with you—this will make it infinitely easier.

A Holistic ApproachAfter incorporating these changes in my life, I have greatly reduced the number of prescriptions I was taking 10 years ago. This approach is known as integrative medicine—the best of both worlds. A good alternative medicine practitioner will know which herbs and supplements will complement your conventional treatment to avoid any interactions. In the 21st century the number of integrative medicine doctors is growing. These are M.D.'s who also have training in nutrition & supplements.

Keep Up on Your Regular Medical CareI do see my primary care doctor and my rheumatologist twice a year for check-ups, blood work and prescription renewals; and I do take a few prescriptions to manage some of the chronic illnesses I have, that I have not been able to treat through gentler therapies. So by all means, make use of modern medicine, but know that there are many non-prescription, self-care things you can do to help yourself feel better.

More on these TopicsThis is the first in a series of articles in which I will expand on each of my top ten self-care habits. First up is physical movement.

Now that Fall is here and the days are cool and crisp (or wet and cold where I live), it’s time to bundle up and drink hot fluids. I drink a lot of warming herbal tea blends, but some days I crave a creamy hot chocolate, or spicy chai latte made with nut milk. I recently found another delicious autumn drink option.

A friend introduced me to a wonderful creamy and spicy drink called Golden Milk that contains turmeric and ginger. Besides being deliciously warming and spicy, both turmeric and ginger have anti-inflammatory properties that are good for the gut and are helpful in relieving some types of pain.

You can buy a powdered golden milk mix at the health food store or online, but it’s a bit expensive for the small amount you get. You mix a teaspoon or so with some coconut milk or almond milk and heat it up. I found that you can easily make your own.

Below is my recipe that I have gradually adapted to my tastes from several recipes I have found over the years (there are lots of recipes online for golden milk, and I have forgotten which ones I looked at). My local food co-op even offers a golden milk smoothie!

Black pepper and a little fat are added to improve the body’s absorption of the nutrients.

1 cup of your favorite milk (I love this with hemp milk, but coconut, cashew, or almond milk are also delicious)

Directions:Heat the milk in the microwave or a saucepan (do not boil). Remove from heat and stir in spices, oil, & sweetener. Optional, mix in a blender for a frothy treat, as shown above! I often double this recipe and use a large 15-oz. mug when I’ve overdone it and some of my joints are tender. Enjoy!

Make Your Own Golden Milk Powder MixIngredients:

½ cup turmeric powder

½ cup ginger powder

1 Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:Mix the spices thoroughly and store in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. When ready to make a serving or two, use 1 teaspoon Golden Milk Mix per cup of your favorite milk. Heat, then add 1 teaspoon oil flax oil and sweeten to taste. Optional, mix in blender for a frothy treat!

"The garden activates our nervous system of rest, thanks to the soothing stimuli of nature."-- Clemens G. Arvay, The Healing Code of Nature

Gardening can be LOT of work. But it can also be adapted to fit the lifestyles of the chronically ill, and the benefits are enormous.

Here are my top 10 hacks for making it easier:

1. Grow plants in containers. Growing plants in containers is a great way to do some gardening by keeping things small and simple. If you have a sunny patio, you can grow some delicious cherry tomatoes and basil, with marigolds to ward of bugs.

For a shadier spot, grow a planter box of lettuce mix, microgreens, or shade tolerant herbs like cilantro or chervil.

2. Use raised beds. I love my two raised beds that are about 2 feet high (about 0.61 meters), made of concrete blocks. I can sit on the side as I plant seeds or harvest greens. My husband built the beds for me. As an added bonus, slugs are much less of a problem in these beds!

3. Use a stool. I use an old plastic lawn chair table. It’s light and easy to carry around, just the right height for sitting next to the garden bed, and saves my hips some aches and pains.

Another option for a simple, inexpensive stool, and about the same height, is a plastic 5-gallon bucket turned upside down.

4. Use a foam knee pad. I use a small blue knee pad with a handle. It's easy to carry around and cushions my knees from the rocky ground and gravel. This photo shows the underside. It provides comfort and protection from pokes and bruises.

5. Use a weeding tool. Save your fingers and hands and let a weeder do most of the work. In this photo, my favorite one has an ergonomic handle, a serrated edge, and a forked tip, made by Corona® Tools.There are other less expensive options available that have a simple fork at the tip.

6. Use good quality, spring-loaded gardening shears. Good tools make things a lot easier on the body. I had an old pair of garden shears that lost its spring-tension, and using them quickly made my hands and fingers sore. Not good! Avoid this by investing a good pair of shears. I use one made by Fiskars.

7. Buy an emergency car shovel or camping shovel. I got one at my local home & garden store for about $12. This is much less expensive than fancy garden shovels made for women that cost close to $50. It’s small, lightweight, with a handle on the end. When I tried to used my husband’s regular shovel, it was simply to heavy, even without any dirt in it.

8. Keep it simple. Grow only things you really like to eat, and maybe items that aren’t available in the store, like tasty vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes. Lettuces and microgreens are easy to grow and are more nutritious when you grow them yourself and eat right after harvest.

9. Grow perennial plants. These you plant once and they continue to grow year after year, supplying you with edible nutrition.

Many herbs are wonderful perennials, which come back every year, such as lavender, yarrow, anise hyssop, plantain, chives, oregano, thyme, sage. Other herbs like chamomile and borage are self-seeding, so you plant them once, and even if you pull them out at the end of the season, new ones will sprout up next year.

Vegetable examples include asparagus and rhubarb. Fruits include strawberries (very easy to grow from plant starts), a blueberry bush, and a raspberry on a trellis.

10. Stick with native, edible and medicinal plants. Make use of gifts from Mother Earth’s bounty: plant edible and medicinal plants that grow naturally in your area, and therefore are low-maintenance. Examples might include plantain, dandelion, and red clover--these grow all over and are highly nutritious foods and medicines.

Where I live, red huckleberry, salal, and Oregon grape grow wild and each provide delicious berries. Other wild medicinal herbs include St. John’s Wort, mullein, wild roses, yellow dock, and many more. This photo shows perennials St. John's Wort, lavender, and borage growing in a herb bed.

Bonus Tip: Start small. If you grow to love gardening like I have, you can expand one potted plant or raised bed at a time. A couple of great books on the subject include Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail (she includes lots of ideas on gardening in containers and small spaces), and Herbal Remedies in Pots.

Parting Thoughts: Balance Activity with Rest

Taking breaks and resting is a requirement for me, so I do gardening in short 10-20 minute intervals. That is enough time to pull a few weeds, water a few plants, or harvest a few veggies. You’d be surprised how much you can get done in a week or two by gardening 15 minutes at a time.

I like to lie down in the grass and rest in the warm sun for 15 minutes or so, gazing at the sky. My back gets sore easily, so this is a really good way to avoid overdoing it, and still enjoy myself in the garden. After a rest period, my body aches usually subside and I might garden for another 15 minutes.

Daily fresh air, sunlight, movement, and fresh nutritious food are all things my garden provides. It gets me out of the house most days in spring through summer. My garden has turned out to be a major partner in my care and well-being.Gardening is simply good medicine.

]]>Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.chronicallynatural.com/blog/fatigue-takes-its-toll "Exhaustion that disrupts your daily life and doesn’t get better after a good night’s sleep has its own medical term: fatigue.” -Arthritis Foundation

Obviously, I've neglected my blog for a few months. Fatigue, more than chronic pain this time, has really gotten me down since January. Fatigue has been an on-going struggle for me in the last few years.

I had some bloodwork done recently to test for anemia, and possible thyroid issues that might explain this heavy feeling throughout my body. My bloodwork came back normal! That’s good news, right? But it doesn’t solve the fatigue issue.

Fatigue is often a typical part of living with chronic pain. I recently read that fatigue can also be a problem in the early years of menopause. Great!--maybe that’s part of it too.

I live in the maritime Pacific Northwest, where it’s overcast more months of the year than not, and I’m pretty sure I have some degree of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD’s symptoms include depression, loss of energy, loss of interest in activities, craving carbohydrates, difficulty concentrating and processing information.

There are a lot of things contributing to the fatigue I experience, so my approach is multi-modal. Here are a few tools I use:

ExerciseMy rheumatologist and my primary care both said the best way to fight fatigue is to exercise five days per week, 30 minutes each day. If I can get my heart rate up to my target rate, that’s ideal, but it’s easier said than done, when you have inflammatory arthritis. Nevertheless, I keep trying. I do find that regular exercise of any kind helps me function better. I just need to work on the cardio.

Schedule My SleepI go to bed at the same time each night, and attempt to get up at the same time each morning. When I succeed, I do feel better throughout the day, especially after a few days of doing this. But fatigue in winter can be a vicious cycle. When I’m tired on waking, I don’t want to get out of bed, so I doze a little longer, which can make me sluggish later. The body really likes rhythm--in this case, the circadian rhythm. The human body prefers a regular sleep schedule. So I am back to setting my alarm and practicing good sleep hygiene.

A Light BoxOne of the ways I cope with SAD is to use a light box in the morning in winter months for about 15 minutes after I get up. Still, this wasn’t enough this last winter. I’m going to try using it for 30 minutes daily next winter, because my body seems to need more sunlight. In summer, when the days are gloriously long and bright, I usually have better energy.

I bought this one at Costco several years ago. It uses blue LED lights. On a dark morning, it's super bright!

Plant-Based Energy SupportOn the suggestion of my naturopath, I also take 1-2 capsules of the herb Ashwaganda daily. Ashwaganda is an adaptogen, which means it helps the body regulate its energy levels, when used over time. Some adaptogens can cause flare-ups with autoimmune disease, so you may need to try a little at first and discontinue it if you have any increased symptoms. For example, I cannot take Astragalus, which tends to stimulate the immune system; for me, it counteracts my prescription anti-TNF blocker, causing a pain flare-up.

I LOVE my morning cup of coffee. There’s something so comforting about holding, smelling, and drinking a mug of rich, dark roast coffee, especially on a dark winter day. The caffeine in coffee, however, gives a sudden boost of energy, followed by a bit of a crash later. I’ve recently discovered yerba maté tea, which naturally contains some caffeine, but it provides a steadier, longer-lasting energy. This afternoon, I wanted a little pick-me-up, so instead of reaching for another cup of coffee, I made myself a yummy yerba maté latte.

In the first few years of appointments with my rheumatologist, I received a diagnosis and a drug treatment plan, as well as referral to specialists as needed, such as physical therapy or anti-inflammatory infusions at the hospital. However, I did not receive any information on the condition with which I was diagnosed. That, I had to research on my own.

From what I often read on chronic illness forums, this is a common scenario. Paradoxically, I often read the opposite on health websites—that we will receive information and education from our doctors on what ails us. I also often read well-meaning articles about assembling our health care team—doctors and health professionals that will communicate with one another and that one of them will serve as the care coordinator. Sounds great! Where can I sign up??!

My own experience, and that of many other chronic illness patients, is that we, the patient, end up coordinating all of our own care, and educating ourselves about the diseases we have. It is a daunting task being your own care coordinator, educator, and health insurance liaison, on top of dealing with a myriad of symptoms from chronic illness and the necessary self-care that goes with it.

If you live with a chronic illness(es) that affects your daily life, you already know it’s often a full-time job managing your own care. It sucks when you don’t feel well and you have to make phone calls and fill out paperwork to get the care you need and paid for by your insurance.

Here are some tips to empower you with knowledge on how to live with your diagnosis:

Find an association that advocates for the illness you have.If you google the name of the disease(s) you have, you’ll likely find an organization that provides information, research, and advocacy for that particular disease. For example, I have ankylosing spondylitis, and fortunately, there exists a non-profit organization that provides a wealth of information on spondylitis, the Spondylitis Association of America (there’s also a spondylitis organization in Canada, and one in the UK as well).

Check Your Drug Interactions:If you have all of your prescriptions at one pharmacy, ideally your pharmacist should be able to tell you about potential interactions between the drugs you take. If you’re like me and you have a few “as needed” prescriptions filled at a local pharmacy instead of mail-order, then it’s up to you to keep track. I use MediGuard, a free service that allows you to enter in all of your prescription, over-the-counter medicines, and herbal supplements to check for interactions. If you create an account, it will save your medications list and periodically send you an email reminder to update your list.

Find an Online Support Group:I participate in several online discussion forums and social media groups. Some are specific to the diseases I’ve been diagnosed with, and some are general chronic illness discussions about issues relating to being chronically ill. Online support groups are a great place to ask questions and share your experience with others.

There are plenty of general chronic illness online forums and social media groups, and many for specific diseases. The website ButYouDontLookSick has a forum index page with over 70 topics on various aspects of chronic illness. Another website that has been around a long time, Healing Well, offers a portal to many forum discussions on a variety of diseases and conditions.

Check to see if your health insurance has a chronic disease management program.About 5 years after diagnosis and a lot of research on my own, I was contacted by my health insurance asking if I wanted to sign up with a case manager through their chronic disease management program. I signed up and had a weekly phone call with a case manager for about a month, but it was all information I’d already figured out on my own. This would have been really helpful right from the beginning! They can help with insurance claims and appeals, provide nutrition information, monitor your moods and health changes, help you set goals, and more.

Get Help to Tailor an Exercise Plan. There is a ton of research now showing the benefits of exercise not just for healthy people, but for those with arthritis and many other health conditions. My physical therapist discussed the importance of cross-training: doing a different kind of exercise 2-3 times a week, and not the same thing every day. I find this advice spot-on in preventing further aggravation or injury to arthritic joints.

The key is to do some exercise or movement consistently every day, but don’t overdo it and set off a flare. The Arthritis Foundation, for example, offers some excellent tips on exercising within your own limits--I especially like their online tool called “Your Exercise Solution.” Your doctor, physical therapist, and a disease-specific support organization should be able to offer solutions for the illness you have.

Evaluate your diet for inflammation-causing foods.Many chronic diseases have an inflammation component. Initially, I didn’t think diet was that important, but I’ve since learned that good health starts in the gut. We need to be able to digest and absorb the nutrients from our food to function our best. Some of the worst offenders which cause inflammation are sugar, saturated and trans- fats, refined white flour, monosodium glutamate (MSG), gluten, and casein. If you have arthritis, for example, check out the dietary recommendations from the Arthritis Foundation.

Follow the Research for Your Disease. You know your body better than anyone, and are motivated to receive the most effective treatment. Although doctors should keep up on the latest research, they can’t always do so for everything. Look to reputable research sources such as medical journals, research studies available online through websites such as PubMed, and websites associated with reputable health centers like the Mayo Clinic’s Patient Care and Health Information online.

Seek Nature to Calm and Re-Ground You.When it all gets to be too much (which, unfortunately, can be often), be sure to make the time for a good 10-15 minutes outside in your yard, a park, or other nature setting. Better yet, do this often and regularly before you’re completely stressed out.

Take a few deep breaths, taking in the fresh air, and letting it out with a big sigh. Focus on the moment, and observe your surroundings. What do you notice? Watch the birds feed in the bushes and on the ground. Feel the sun and breeze or light wind on your face. Let go of all worries during this brief outdoor respite. It’s amazing how well this works to provide a break from stress and restore a bit of calm into your day.

I hope my experiences will help you begin to navigate your own ongoing self-care with chronic illness. Remember you are not alone. There are many of us living with chronic illnesses, and we support one another through blogs like this, and through online forums, and social media. Welcome to the club!

When you live with chronic illness, you become familiar with frustration, pain, fear, worry, and feeling vulnerable. It’s easy to get bogged down with these feelings, but it’s not a good place to be. How do I get out of it or prevent it from happening in the first place?

When I cultivate the following 5 attitudes, these practices keep despairing emotions from taking over. The more I practice these outlooks, the more resilient I become.

1. Acceptance.

Acceptance does not mean giving up. It means I accept where I am today and I focus on doing what I can do. When I accept where I am today and make the most of it, I can stop despair from getting to me. Acceptance is acknowledging the pain and then taking active steps to alleviate or distract myself from some of it (such as, listening to a deep relaxation CD, or listening to some favorite music).

I have a plan of action that I follow every day for self-care. I have contingencies built in to that plan to accommodate days with high fatigue or high pain. This helps prevent me from getting frustrated that I can’t do my “usual” exercise or activities.

Acceptance is letting go of my old life, and mapping out a new one. When I accept that chronic illness is here to stay, this allows me live with it the best I can.

2. Compassion.

It is easy for me to have compassion and understanding towards others. Towards myself, self-judgment used to be my knee-jerk reaction. With practice, I have learned to have compassion for myself; this helps me relax and accept my situation. When self-judgment does arise, or regret, or second-guessing the past which makes me feel small and not good enough, compassion reminds me I am human and I am doing the best I know how to live each day.

Today I practice doing self-care lovingly, rather than with complaint, anger, or judgment. Today I accept who I am and my body-mind is where it’s at on the health-illness spectrum. I accept who I am today and treat myself with compassion.

3. Gratitude.

When complaints, fear, and envy muddle my mind and drag me down into a funk, gratitude helps me focus on all that is going well in my life. Gratitude helps me let go of feeling self-pity, or “why me?”

Within the first few years of the onset of pain and loss of some mobility, I would get so sad and frustrated seeing people my age, or worse--people 10 and 20 years older than me--walking, hiking, and traveling with ease. Once I accepted my situation, and showed myself compassion to take care of my needs, and live within my limits, I could focus on being grateful for the things I can do.

I am grateful to be able to walk a quarter mile one day, and maybe one mile another day. My limit is about a mile and an half before a flare-up in my feet sets in, but I am grateful to be able to walk in the woods again! I have found several flat trails near where I live where I can still enjoy the outdoors and different scenery. I’m grateful I haven’t had to use a wheelchair in over 4 years. I’m grateful for so many things today.

4. Mindfulness.

When fear wants to take me away into the future, mindfulness brings me back to today and to this moment. This moment. Is my life. Today.

A friend of mine shared a phrase with me that he finds helpful when agitated: “Where are my feet?” This simple sentence helps me to stop my racing and worrying mind, and focus on the present moment. Often when I do this, I realize that this moment where I am right now is peaceful. It helps get me out of scenario-izing my fears of the future, or longing for the past when my physical capabilities used to be “normal.”

5. Perseverance.

In spite of the daily aches and pains, emotional ups and downs, I keep going one day at a time, one foot in front of the other. I try to create my best possible life under the circumstances.

When medical paperwork piles up and fatigue is ever-present, I break things down to priorities, and then do one task per day, if necessary. Eventually it all gets done, until the next cycle of medical appointments.

When I am fatigued and can’t do my usual exercise one day, I have a fallback exercise routine I use that is gentle and goes through the body’s full range-of motion for each joint. This minimal movement is enough to relieve stiffness and prevent my muscles from becoming tight and painful later.

These qualities help me become more resilient to life's ups and downs. To live each day to the fullest, with or without chronic illness (but especially with). Today my idea of a full life is to appreciate each moment--from the warmth of a cat sitting on my lap, to watching the morning mists float across the valley floor, to hearing the first sounds of a thrush on an early spring morning. A full life is a life of moments noticed and appreciated.

Cultivating acceptance, compassion, gratitude, mindfulness, and perseverance in daily life creates a foundation of resiliency.

I am fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest in a home surrounded by nature. The gentle breeze blowing through the evergreens, rising and falling, creates a rhythmical sound. Two northern flickers fly overhead-- I hear their calls first, and then watch them fly over and disappear into a stand of Douglas fir. It is easy to be mindful and grateful living in a setting like this. I crave this natural beauty, and its quiet rhythms. It steadies, calms, and grounds me.

Looking out at my food and medicine garden filled with herbs, veggies, fruit trees, and the garden shed my husband built--it's beautiful--and it reminds me of something you’d see in Mother Earth News magazine! I chuckled to myself realizing that this is what I have been dreaming about the last decade, and here it is, manifested, one day at a time over a decade.

Having a garden gets me outdoors first thing every morning in summer, to check on things, harvest what is ready, water new seedlings, and marvel at the miracle of planting a seed in the soil and watching it grow into a healthy plant. This simple activity gets my body moving, reduces stiffness, and helps keep the blues away. With an abundance of fresh garden goodies, I eat fresh home-grown food every day in summer. My body appreciates simple food, sunshine and fresh air.

I've always enjoyed spending time outdoors. As a kid I loved running around barefoot outside with my two dogs, building forts, handling frogs and snakes, and playing down at the local pond nearby. I used to sketch trees and animals, and write poetry about the stars.

Sometime in my early adult life, I let all that go, and became a working machine. I’d often eat lunch at my desk at work, while continuing to work. At home I would do chores right away while I was still running on adrenaline. I was living a life of mostly work and not enough play. That busy, nonstop life took its toll. I became exhausted and several of my joints began to hurt, ending in a diagnosis of an auto-inflammatory arthritis condition with no cure.

After a decade-plus of medical care and holistic self-care, I am feeling much better, but inflammatory arthritis and fatigue is still with me. Each day is a balancing act of doing enough activity to maintain my current fitness level, yet not overdoing the activity and causing a flare-up.

In spite of ongoing challenges in living with chronic illness, here are five wonderful things that have come out of this journey:

I’ve learned to be mindfuland listento my body and heed its messages. If I need to rest, I rest. I no longer push through the pain to get things done. My health is my life--without it, I can’t do anything.

I’ve learned to say “no” more often and simplify my life.

I’ve discovered the joy of growing some of my own food and herbs. Plants are medicine in more ways than one.

I’ve rediscovered my deep connection with the outdoors, and nature—the ultimate guide for a balanced life.

And finally, I’ve learned the gift and practice of gratitude. Being thankful for my life each day and appreciating each moment are probably the best life skills I’ve ever learned. Even when I’m down and not feeling well, I can usually find something to be grateful for.

And that’s how this article was inspired... sitting outdoors mindfully and feeling grateful.

As a former perfectionist and workaholic, chronic illness has forced me to change my ways. The first five years after being diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and adrenal fatigue, I was still pushing myself too hard and trying to do too much. This resulted in more frequent flare-ups, and a higher level of chronic pain.

After reading a workbook on chronic Illness, I finally learned the importance of pacing myself, and using my limited energy on my top priorities. It was a humbling process to realize that with today’s energy level I simply can’t do everything I used to do, nor should I keep trying. I had to stop and think about what I find helpful to do for self-care each day, and then I made a list for my bathroom mirror to help me stay focused. It looks like this:

My Daily Essentials:

Prayer

Exercise / Movement

Meditation / Deep Relaxation

Nature

Create

My Daily Essentials include self-care for my mind, body, and spirit. I need this list in plain sight to remind me not to slide back into doing things I think I “should” be doing that tax my body and cause more pain. With practice, I find this simpler-focused life works much better for me. I like to start my day with a reading from an inspirational daily reader and a prayer for guidance and gratitude. When I do this each morning, I find myself better prepared to face the day.

After a nutritious breakfast, I like to do some sort of movement each day. On low-energy/high-fatigue days, often all I feel up to is 5 to 10 minutes of range-of-motion exercises. On better days I do 20-40 minutes of gentle yoga. I have several gentle exercise DVDs that I rotate through each week, depending on how I’m feeling. One is a simple head-to-toe series of working through each joints’ range of motion. Another is a gentle yoga program for the neck, shoulders, and back, and one for the low back and sacrum. With ankylosing spondylitis, these are problem areas for me, so it’s important to keeps those joints moving and supple.

After 30 minutes of physical activity, I need to rest, so I find this is an ideal time of day for me to meditate. Forty minutes of daily meditation has been shown to reduce chronic pain after about 8 weeks. It works for me, and I find meditation’s benefits improve even more with practice. Even listening to a deep-relaxation CD for 20 minutes, not only helps me recharge, it helps prevent flare-ups. Before illness, I could rarely get myself to rest or meditate, but now it is essential.

For me, nature is essential to my well-being. I loved spending time outdoors as a kid, and I still do. I can’t go on long hikes like I used to, but I am blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest near lush evergreen forests, mountains, and rivers. I make a point of going outside at least once a day, even in winter. It may be just for a quick breath of fresh air and to feel the brisk cold; other days I go for a short walk. In summer, I spend much of my days sitting outside on the deck. Spending time in nature helps me to thrive. Think about what would help you to thrive within your chronic-illness-imposed limits.

Last on my list on my list is to create something. I don’t always get to this one every day, but it is an important goal for me. In winter, it often means baking healthy snacks (I’ve always loved to bake), adapting recipes to avoid my food triggers. Some days it means writing or sketching. In summer, I have a small food and herb garden that I love spending time on. I even created the herb sign in the photo above. This helps me feel like I have a goal to work toward, and a life to enjoy beyond just taking care of my aches & pains each day.

Your own daily essentials will be unique to you. For me, these are the things that I want to do every day that help me feel better and function better. IF I have energy leftover after I’ve done my daily essentials, that’s icing on the cake. Many days, my energy is spent after doing my daily essentials, so I rest in bed or read in my recliner. And that’s okay. I always feel like I’ve had a good day when I accomplish my daily essentials. These essentials keep me functioning as best I can, and I’m less likely to become discouraged on a “down” day when I don’t accomplish anything else.

To create your own daily essentials list, keep it short, 3-5 major categories, or even less, depending on what is doable for you. The main thing is to work within your own limits. This list of essentials should be things you look forward to doing, or things that support your well-being and your body, mind, and soul.

This post was originally published on The Mighty, a wonderful blog full of "real stories by real people" living with all varieties of chronic illness. Definitely worth a visit!